Sainsbury’s Bank delivers cruel blow to credit card customers

Sainsbury’s Bank, which has 1.8 million active customers in the UK, emailed their credit card holders yesterday morning (1), explaining that from 1 November, customers will no longer earn two points for every £1 spent at Sainsbury’s, Argos, Habitat and Tu clothing. Instead, they will collect just one Nectar point for every £2 spent, quartering at a stroke the benefit that provided a big attraction for the store-branded card

“Loyal Sainsbury’s Bank customers won’t like this change,” said David Beard, Editor-in-Chief of financial comparison site Lendingexpert.co.uk. “To revise one of the credit card’s most loved benefits so dramatically in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis could be a harmful move for the bank.

“With so many other credit cards to choose from, I suspect customers might vote with their feet and go elsewhere. Sadly it’s a sign of the times, and consumers will have to get used to this practice of skimpflation, where brands reduce the value of their services to remain profitable.”

He quoted one customer, Laura, 39 from Stroud, who said, “The additional Nectar points were the only reason I chose this credit card over other ones. I shop in Sainsbury’s every week and it was a good way to boost my points and get money off my weekly food shop or buy other things with the points. I recently used my saved up points to buy a fan from Argos in the heat wave which was a life saver.

“This change is really drastic and makes me not want to bother with it anymore. It’s seems like an unfair time to announce this too just as our energy bills go through the roof. My card is running out of it’s zero per cent promotion soon, so I’ll simply close my account.”

Twitter was alight with outrage at the time of posting, with disgruntled customers voicing their dismay.